Maldives

PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

Physiography

Maldives consists of approximately 1,200 coral islands
grouped in a double chain of twenty-seven atolls. Composed
of
live coral reefs and sand bars, these atolls are situated
atop a
submarine ridge 960 kilometers long that rises abruptly
from the
depths of the Indian Ocean and runs from north to south.
Only
near the southern end of this natural coral barricade do
two open
passages permit safe ship navigation from one side of the
Indian
Ocean to the other through the territorial waters of
Maldives.
For administrative purposes the Maldives government
organized
these atolls into nineteen administrative divisions
(see
fig. 8;
Government and Politics
, this ch.).

Most atolls consist of a large, ring-shaped coral reef
supporting numerous small islands. Islands average only
one to
two square kilometers in area, and lie between one and 1.5
meters
above mean sea level. The highest island is situated at
three
meters above sea level. Maldives has no hills or rivers.
Although
some larger atolls are approximately fifty kilometers long
from
north to south, and thirty kilometers wide from east to
west, no
individual island is longer than eight kilometers.

Each atoll has approximately five to ten inhabited
islands;
the uninhabited islands of each atoll number approximately
twenty
to sixty. Several atolls, however, consist of one large,
isolated
island surrounded by a steep coral beach. The most notable
example of this type of atoll is the large island of Fua
Mulaku
situated in the middle of the Equatorial Channel.

The tropical vegetation of Maldives comprises groves of
breadfruit trees and coconut palms towering above dense
scrub,
shrubs, and flowers. The soil is sandy and highly
alkaline, and a
deficiency in nitrogen, potash, and iron severely limits
agricultural potential. Ten percent of the land, or about
2,600
hectares, is cultivated with taro, bananas, coconuts, and
other
fruit. Only the lush island of Fua Mulaku produces fruits
such as
oranges and pineapples partly because the terrain of Fua
Mulaku
is higher than most other islands, leaving the groundwater
less
subject to seawater penetration. Freshwater floats in a
layer, or
"lens," above the seawater that permeates the limestone
and coral
sands of the islands. These lenses are shrinking rapidly
on Male
and on many islands where there are resorts catering to
foreign
tourists. Mango trees already have been reported dying on
Male
because of salt penetration. Most residents of the atolls
depend
on groundwater or rainwater for drinking purposes.
Concerns over
global warming and a possible long-term rise in sea level
as a
result of the melting of polar ice are important issues to
the
fragile balance between the people and the environment of
Maldives in the 1990s.